Chapter 278: The Secret of the Black Box

Back at the Pokémon Center.

Baimu contacted Reo, who served with the International Police, the first chance he got.

He'd originally worried about disturbing the other's rest or work, so he'd only sent a message and left it at that—but no sooner had the message gone out than the other party called him back.

After hearing his explanation, Reo didn't laugh at him for being overly nervous, but told him to wait a moment.

The wait stretched to five full minutes.

"Hello? You still there?"

"Still here, still here."

Baimu set down the brush in his hand, shoved his right hand into the gaping maw of his single-headed Dragon to keep it from squawking, and asked, "So, what did you find out?"

Reo's voice came through the phone: "You're not planning to sleep at this hour, are you?"

"No, no."

"Alright then. A big-bearded guy will come pick you up in a bit—just follow him."

"Huh? I'm going along too?"

"Of course. As the person involved, you definitely have to come along. What, you want to hand over the black box and wash your hands of the whole thing?"

Reo's matter-of-fact tone left Baimu speechless.

Actually, that was exactly what he'd been planning… but it was true that he was the one who'd caused the trouble, and shirking responsibility was a bit much.

"Fine, fine. I'll wait."

He gave a reply, and the other side promptly hung up.

He coaxed all his Pokémon to sleep.

Not long after.

Someone knocked on his door. Baimu peered through the peephole and saw it was indeed the big-bearded man Reo had mentioned—face covered in stubble, skin dark, looking at least thirty or forty years old.

Once the door opened, their eyes met.

The stubble-faced man spoke first and saluted. "Hello, are you Mr. Baimu?"

"That's right."

Baimu patted his bag. "The thing's right here."

"Good, please come with me." The stubble-faced man led him outside. But when they reached the first floor, the Young Lady Joy called out to him, reminding him that the Pokémon Center would be closing soon because it was so late.

Baimu apologized to her, then, under the Young Lady Joy's resigned expression, got into the stubble-faced man's car.

The car drove into Battle Town.

The man stayed silent the whole way, not even glancing in Baimu's direction with his eyes. His serious demeanor gave the latter a certain sense of reassurance.

But he was wearing civilian clothes—was that a sign he was undercover in Battle Town?

While Baimu was thinking, the car had already stopped in front of the garage of a two-story residence.

"Stay behind me, don't wander too far."

The stubble-faced man turned and said that, then immediately opened the front door of the residence and walked in.

Baimu followed behind him. The moment he crossed the threshold, he clearly felt a red light scan him from head to toe.

Beep!

The red light on a camera overhead turned green.

He blurted out, "This is…"

"Identity verification system. It checks whether you're in disguise, whether you've used a Ditto to coat your body surface—that sort of thing." The stubble-faced man explained.

Without a doubt, this residence was the International Police's secret base in Battle Town.

He wasn't entirely sure why they needed to stay hidden, but presumably they had their own considerations.

Following the stubble-faced man into an elevator that looked like a giant refrigerator on the outside, Baimu waiting for the elevator to reach its destination suddenly felt a bit excited—he was reminded of the movie Men in Black, where the secret agents seemed to always use this kind of inexplicable equipment.

However.

When they arrived at the destination, the interior environment left him a bit disappointed.

The inside of the secret base was spacious and bright, but what was visible to the naked eye was a scene just like an office—neatly arranged desks covered with all sorts of computers.

A handful of International Police officers sat at different stations, and upon noticing Baimu's arrival merely glanced at him out of the corners of their eyes.

Only one middle-aged man wearing glasses came over.

"You're Baimu, right?"

The newcomer's appearance was rather ordinary—he wore a white shirt and spoke with particular gentleness, clearly a desk-job type at a glance.

"That's right, hello." Baimu subtly glanced at the bulging muscles on the other's arm.

Mm.

You really can't judge a book by its cover.

"I'm Yanagihara, the one in charge of the Battle Town base. Reo told me all about the black box. Please, come with me." Yanagihara smiled and walked further inside.

Baimu turned to glance at the stubble-faced man, saw him sit down very calmly at one of the desks, and looked away again.

Yanagihara led him further inside while saying:

"Regarding Team Aqua and Lugia, we've actually had our eye on them too. In fact, it was us who called off Guanghai's side as well."

"You know Guanghai?"

"Of course I know him. You think we wouldn't notice him modifying a ship as big as a beached vessel?" Yanagihara laughed. "When that short video of his blew up with unusual popularity, we reminded him to stop revealing his surroundings."

"As for Team Aqua and Dr. Akihabara's arrival… to be honest, we also thought it was a bit of a coincidence, but without solid evidence, it's really hard to just label them an illegal organization again."

He said softly, "Even if the black box really does contain data records on Lugia, it still can't prove anything. Besides, those people are tracking Lugia's whereabouts because they want to capture it—but does that mean they want to use it for evil? Not necessarily!

"There are plenty of people in the world chasing legendary Pokémon—surely we can't arrest them all. And you need to catch a thief with the goods… I'm sure you understand."

"Uh, yeah."

"You don't have to be disappointed either — it's better for everyone if they just behave." Yanagihara assumed he was regretting not being able to catch the Neo Water Fleet.

In reality, All Baimu was only thinking about the possibility that the Neo Water Fleet was interested in Lugia.

To be honest.

They, who once had Kyogre — the creator of the sea — as their target, seemed to have no reason to capture a single Lugia. Surely the Neo Water Fleet hadn't fallen so low as to become the kind of money-grubbing existence that Team Rocket was, right?

If what Azumi said was true, and the Neo Water Fleet really wanted to protect the sea, then there was a logic that made sense.

Namely, they were trying to protect Lugia from wave after wave of trainers, thereby safeguarding the ocean's ecological environment from the side.

Yanagihara led him all the way to the deepest part, where a person was squatting on the ground tinkering with something.

The former squatted down as well, then turned and said: "Here, give me the black box."

"Oh."

All Baimu took the black box out of his bag and handed it over.

Then, he watched them first wipe down the black box with disinfectant, then stick something like electrode pads onto it.

"Power it up!"

"Yes!"

Under Yanagihara's command, another person pressed a button on the side.

Poof!

Flashing electric light rushed toward him, startling All Baimu, and the lights of the entire underground base dimmed along with it.

*Heaven's Descent*

But as the black box was powered up, the thing came alive like building blocks, breaking apart into countless fragments to reveal a chip-like interior.

"Let's take a good look at exactly what data is inside."

Yanagihara pinched up the chip inside, stuffed it into a machine like a VCR beside him, stood up, and smiled at All Baimu.

They came to a computer.

The former casually operated it for a moment, and a great amount of data appeared before their eyes.

"Video data... audio data... found it."

Yanagihara opened a video file, and accompanied by a hissing sound, numerous Neo Water Fleet members and a man with a cauliflower haircut and glasses appeared on screen.

"Doctor, we can begin the experiment at any time."

"Excellent! Experimental Porygon Submarine One, prepare to launch!"

Azumi's voice rang out, followed immediately by Dr. Akihabara's voice.

Immediately after.

The camera, accompanied by countless bubbles, sank into the pitch-black sea.